It is with great pleasure that I announce the appointment of Teresa Berryman as Interim Chief Operating Officer, effective Nov. 1, 2010. In this role, she will have responsibility for all administrative functions, including finance, human resources, internal audit, public safety and security, risk management, facilities and plant management. Ms. Berryman served for 30 years at the University of Colorado and is now retired. I am very knowledgeable of Ms. Berryman’s capabilities, as she was my Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance at the University of Colorado Denver, where she managed an annual budget of $1.3 billion and was central to the development of a new health sciences campus. She is terrific, and I have complete confidence that she will be highly effective in this new interim position. Ms. Berryman has committed to assisting us, at least through the February accreditation site visit of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. It

M. Roy Wilson, M.D.Chairman Board of Trustees

New Emergency Communications System to be Unveiled Campus-wide, Enhancing Safety

The university plans to roll out a new crisis communications system next month. In case of emergency, registered users will be contacted if an unforeseen incident occurs on campus, said Nathanial D. Brown, the Public Safety and Security Manager. "One of the things I really like about the Everbridge mass notification system is that it delivers messages across all communication platforms, and will cycle through communication devices until the message is delivered," Mr. Brown said. Registered users can elect to be notified by email, cell phone, or by telephone at home, or at work. system, allowing a single message to be sent out at a time campus-wide, will be available to faculty, staff and students at no charge. More details on how to sign up for the service will be available in November when the system is expected to be unveiled for campus use. “I read somewhere that the void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison, drivel and misrepresentation,” Mr. Brown said. But with this system in place, he believes, no room exists for misinterpretation.

Sendinga Hopeful Message Through Dolls

Assistant Professor Cynthia Davis, one of the best known HIV/AIDS experts in Los Angeles, recently received the Philanthropic Award from the United Federation of Doll Clubs. The distinction honors those who achieve charitable or humane acts through dolls, according to the Kansas City, Mo.-based group. “It is an honor to have received this prestigious national award from my peers in the doll collecting and doll making world,” she said. Ms. Davis, who has a collection of several hundred dolls, found the cloth figures could be used for a larger purpose. Launching a project in 1998 called Dolls of Hope, she began teaching others of all ages through dolls about HIV/AIDS, and to break down the stigma associated with the disease. She has enlisted volunteers from Compton to South Africa to Honduras to Cuba toIndia to help make dolls. More than 6,000, so far, have been given away in the U.S. and overseas, but Ms. Davis promises many more to come. “This exposure is giving me an opportunity to spread the word about HIV/AIDS’ impact nationally and globally.”

(More about her doll-making can be found in newspaper articles that were published inLos Angeles and Memphis.)

Title III Site Visit Scheduled This Week

The U.S. Department of Education will be conducting an onsite site visit this week at CharlesDrewUniversity, as part of a routine check up into federal funding that supports several projects across campus. The grant, known as Title III, Part B, adds $2.16 million annually to the university’s budget. These federal funds are used to strengthen Historically Black Graduate Institutions. “We look forward to the opportunity for showcasing our activities under the Title III program,” said Richard Lindstrom, who directs the university’s program. Congress has requested greater oversight of how these targeted funds have been spent from institutions across the U.S. The meetings, scheduled at Charles Drew University from Oct. 27-29, represent a larger effort to review programs nationwide, Mr. Lindstrom said. The university has relied on the grant for years, aiding several programs. Most recently, the funds have been used to equip the MervynM.DymallySchool of Nursing with clinical simulation instruments; fund subscriptions for online research journals in the library; provide a $25,000 scholarship for the College of Science and Health; and re-establish the university’s alumni association, Mr. Lindstrom said.

News in Brief

School of Nursing

Dean Gloria J. McNeal, founding dean of the Mervin M. Dymally School of Nursing, is scheduled to speak at the 2010 Fall Semi-Annual Meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, to be held Oct. 29 in Washington D.C. She will discuss the Opportunities for Nurse Educators-Executive Nurse Fellows Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The organization is dedicated to improving health and healthcare for Americans.

College of Medicine

The UniHealth Foundation of Los Angeles renewed its Medical Student Scholarship Program for 2010-2011 at Charles Drew University, the organization said. The award grants a third- or fourth-year medical school student with a 50,000 scholarship. The award fund future physicians, who have expressed interest in practicing medicine in underserved areas of Los Angeles or Orange counties, the organization said.

Charles Drew University is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian, minority-serving medical and health sciences institution. Located in the Watts-Willowbrook area of South Los Angeles, Charles Drew University has graduated more than 550 medical doctors, 2,500 post-graduate physicians, more than 2,000 physician assistants and hundreds of other health professionals.The only dually designated Historically Black Graduate Institution and Hispanic Serving Health Professions School in the U.S., CDU is recognized as a leader in translational and health inequities research. Recently, the CDU/UCLA medical program was named “best performer” in the University of California System with respect to producing outstanding underrepresented minority physicians, according to the Greenlining Institute.